Eric Olafson Series Boxed Set: Books 1 - 7

by Vanessa Ravencroft

  He struggled but the marines manhandled him without problems and I said, “Do you want a blindfold?”

  He nodded with tearful eyes, and I placed a black hood over his head and then the rope. His breath was moving the fabric of the hood. I knew this image would follow me for the rest of my life. “May whatever God you worship have mercy on you.”

  I stepped off the elevator platform and pressed the control that lowered it away from his feet. He kicked a few times and then hung still.

  Chapter 15: The Gray Nul

  I could not even think about sleep after that, so I went to the pool and took a long swim. The clear cold water, as always, did wonders to my state of mind. While I was submerged, I wondered if there was something like an immortal soul and if that was so, did I add to my eternal damnation by executing Wintsun?

  I was about to close my eyes a little and simply drift when SHIP’s voice reached me. “Captain, you are needed.”

  So, I surfaced and Har-Hi stood by the pool, holding a towel. “There is a situation outside the ship; I thought you’d want to know about it.”

  I dried myself. “SHIP, give me a field screen.”

  My Dai friend explained while the view screen established itself before me. “There is a Gray Nul outside our force field and it looks like he is badly wounded. As you can see, there is a gang of other beings hunting him.”

  I saw the Nul, his left arm hung from his body and he was oozing yellowish blood from several wounds. He threw rocks and pieces of Duro-Crete toward a horde of 20 beings mocking him and taking pot shots.

  I jumped into the autodresser and dialed for my pirate outfit.

  Seconds later, Har-Hi was running beside me to the next IST. “He is a Nul, captain. They are our enemies. They have never shown any mercy. Remember Lt. Voglgard? I thought you wanted to see him die.”

  I turned my head as we stepped into the IST. “Yes, I remember the two Wolfcraft pilots and I know Voglgard was killed while he was in space. I was there, but that does not mean we have to be the same way. Let’s see what he wants. He did come here for a reason.”

  The IST shaft extended to the ground and released us below my ship. I ran toward the force field border where the Nul stood.

  Below my ship and without a slide belt or other transportation, I realized how big the Tigershark was. So, I increased my running speed.

  Of course, Har-Hi had no problem keeping up and he said with grin on his face, “Besides, it is an unfair situation the Nul is in and that’s why you fought for him at the arena as well.”

  He could not see my grin as I said, “I guess I am predictable after all.”

  Har-Hi responded, “You are one of the biggest mysteries I came across in my life, but yes, in certain situations, I think I know what motivates you.”

  We had almost reached the edge but there was time for me to say, “That is a strange thing to say. I thought we were getting to know each other pretty good by now.”

  He chuckled. “For one, I can’t figure out how you manage to run in heels like that. I would break my neck, and I know you didn’t have a lifetime of practice like Shea. However, there is this whole female part of you. I knew you as Eric and we served many months together and now you are a woman. You are still my best friend and I accept you like that, just as I have before, but I don’t understand it.”

  I slowed down as we were almost there. “I don’t think about the heels. I almost tripped as you mentioned them. For the other part, I can’t even answer that to myself.”

  I stopped just behind the Nul; all that separated us was the insubstantial, barely visible barrier of the shields. “SHIP, can you make the shields transparent for sound where I am?”

  She responded right away. “Yes, captain, you can talk to the Nul now.”

  Before I could say something to the huge alien, a blaster shot hammered into the shield right before me, perhaps even aimed at me but only a few centimeters away from the Nul, his gray skin discoloring from the intense heat to a scarred black.

  I said into the same audio pickup I had addressed SHIP, “Tactical, fire a warning shot before those goons and I don’t mind if you singe a few of these cowards.”

  Mao responded with a crisp aye and an eye blink later, an arm-thick bright white beam of energy pulsed from somewhere above us and converted a long trench of liquefied concrete and trash into white hot glowing magma. Whoever was left scrambled to find cover.

  Having the pause, I needed, I addressed the Nul. “What do you want here?”

  He looked horrible, not because he was a Nul, but because he was injured all over his body and was barely able to stand. His voice that was inhumanly deep but sounded weak. “I know you are Human and we are enemies—” The Nul stumbled, and it appeared he kept on his feet by sheer will power.

  “I have no place to go; the entire planet’s population appears to hunt me because I am Nul. You are an enemy but you are a warrior born, as I have seen you fight and heard what you said to the Pertharians. I do not want to die by the hands of rabble and scum, so I am here to challenge you to a fight. I will die by the hands of an enemy who has honor.”

  His pillar-like legs buckled, and he groaned as he pushed himself back up.

  I said, “Ship, med-bots to my position, stat. Also, alert two marines in full battle armor and make me a structural gap where I am.”

  Har-Hi drew a sword and a blaster at the same time as SHIP responded to my orders. I stepped through the hole in our shield and said to the Nul, “I accept your challenge but there is no honor to fight you in this condition. My med staff is on the way and we will treat you.”

  He groaned something I did not understand and then collapsed. The med-bots arrived along with the marines and to them I said, “Bots take the Nul to sickbay and marines, do not let him out of your sight. If he shows any hostile intentions, constrain or terminate him.”

  The Nul was not the only visitor that night; the two Pertharians arrived at our shield base minutes later. They, too, were wounded, but not seriously as far as I could tell. One of them said to me through the shield, “We are here, pirate woman. You said for us to come here if we want to see the Union again. We are Union citizens and do not want to be taken as slaves again, but even Pertharians have little options on this cursed world.”

  I responded, “On my word, I will not enslave you and I meant what I said in the arena.”

  Narth spoke into my mind, “Those are first-year academy cadets, very young and despite being Pertharians, quite frightened.”

  With this information, I had SHIP open the shield and I said to them, “Cadets, get in here on the double!”

  They responded before they even realized what they were doing. One of them said, “How do you know we are cadets?”

  After SHIP had the shields opaque to sound, I said, “I am Captain Olafson and this is the USS Tigershark. I don’t know how soon we can get you home and back to the Academy, but for now you are safe. This is a Union ship and we are Union officers.”

  They both saluted and snapped into attention and one snarled, “Officer on deck.”

  I sighed with a smile on my lips. “Don’t do the saluting out here, let’s get you inside.”

  As they stepped out of the IST and into the main corridor of Deck 5, they saw two marines waiting for them, one being a Pertharian, too.

  The slightly bigger one said, “The center be praised, this is a Union ship! Captain, ma’am, I am Cadet Clubb and that is Cadet Dorth. We were abducted on Planet Perryton just as we waited to go home for our first R&R. Dorth and I followed a phony Master Chief, who promised us a good time in an Orglatron. Instead, we were paralyzed and sold here to the arena.”

  I said, “Sergeant Lemrr here will take you to sickbay where our MD will check you out. Then you will report to Lt. Neugruber and give him a detailed report and a description so we can send CID to Perryton.”

  Even though both were inhuman Pertharians, I could almost physically feel their relief as they followed the marine
s. Remembering my adventure on this cursed planet, I knew how they felt.

  I ended the day with a late dinner at the Den and then I did find some sleep after all.

  ***

  When I woke, I realized I had missed the Forenoon watch and said to SHIP as I got up, “SHIP, why didn’t you wake me at 07:30 hours?”

  She responded, “You gave no specific orders to be woken, captain, and the XO said to let you sleep if you didn’t give specific orders.”

  With a mild accusatory tone in my voice, I said, “You shaded the viewports and dimmed the lights all on your own, so I would not wake on my own and you knew I scheduled myself for Forenoon watch. One of these days, you’ll mother me before the crew.”

  She actually managed to make her voice sound a little offended. “Captain, your wellbeing is important to the crew and mission and sleep is important to Humans. You know I follow any order you give, and would never be disrespectful.”

  I dressed myself instead of using the autodresser, since I wore the same outfit day in and day out. I did like to select what I was wearing underneath and while I knew it was a mild form of narcissism, I liked the way lace looked on this body.

  I said to SHIP, “I know you were motivated by good intentions and I appreciate that.”

  She sounded happy. “Thank you, captain. Besides, nothing happened that needed your attention while you slept.”

  I finished brushing my hair and went on the bridge. Har-Hi got up from the Conn, wished me a good morning, and then pointed to the main viewer. “More pirate ships have arrived. The Red Dragon has just arrived in the system and should make planet fall within the next hour.”

  Narth turned from his console. “I’ve got the Red Dragon on our sensors, captain. His ship’s original signature has changed from the four ISAH pod configuration we had on file. It now has only two ISAH pods and two Karthanian engine blocks. It appears he could not replace the one you destroyed with the genuine kind.”

  I acknowledged the reports and sat down on my seat. The Golden was sitting next to Elfi at communications and he said, “The city is even more chaotic than usual, as the three remaining cartel families now fight with each other over the void that the sudden decline of the Donheer Cartel has created.”

  Shea also had a report. “Our Nul guest is out of surgery, and Cateria hopes she did enough to help him.”

  Hans stomped down from his security station at the back of the bridge and said, “I sent the statement of the two Pertharian kids to CID and they are investigating. Results are pending and, via Cherubim on Richter, we informed the Academy and the family of the Pertharian brothers that they are alive and safe without revealing where they are. General Cherubim said she will take care of a cover story.”

  Yeoman O’Connell handed me the morning report and daily order sheet to sign and handed me my coffee with her usual shy smile. I looked around my bridge and said, “You all have been busy so it seems while a certain computronic I know let me sleep in.”

  Har-Hi grinned broadly. “To her defense, captain, she did ask me and I agreed with her decision to let you sleep in.”

  SHIP chimed in, “See, captain, it wasn’t just me.”

  I also smiled. “A fine crew I got, ganging up on me and making me look lazy.”

  Har-Hi said, “Well, it’s not every day we share the bridge with a genuine GalNet celebrity. You made quite a splash, captain, and recordings of your fight went viral. It’s virtually on every blog, news channel, and in hundreds of talk shows.”

  Krabbel said, “Circuit and I ordered the Black Velvet Action figure with ax chopping action, complete with animated Stomper; will you autograph mine when we get our mail on Richter?”

  With a sour face, I said, “Splendid indeed. How am I going to explain that to the admiral when I deliver my next report and who would have an action figure so fast after the fight?”

  The Golden tried to make an innocent face and spread his arms. “Sorry, captain, that was an opportunity too good to miss. I am going to make a killing on those.”

  Mao interrupted, “The Red Dragon entered the atmosphere and should become visible any moment now. Mao adjusted the tactical screens and said, “Here she comes.”

  More out of instinct I leaned forward as the red-colored ship descended and settled about a klick to our port side closer toward the actual city. “I still have no idea what kind of ship that is; do any of you have more information?”

  Shea said, “Yes, there is a highly classified file in the orders we got from Cherubim and the Red Dragon could be a unique prototype that was made for a purpose not unlike the Tigershark but almost 500 years ago. It was never finished and the hull was transferred to a bone yard. From there it was stolen with a shipload of other forgotten tech almost two years ago. There is no information about who did the actual theft—” Her voice trailed off.

  I turned to look at her. “Something the matter?”

  She looked puzzled. “I am not sure, but it looks as if part of that file was deleted after it was placed in our order file. The timestamp of the deletion is the day the Tigershark was delivered to Richter Base.”

  SHIP established her Avatar, walked over to Shea, and looked over my science officer’s shoulder. “I can see down to the memory level and the deletion was made with the authority code of the Admiral of the Fleet, Admiral McElligott.”

  He was the highest command authority and he, of course, had the right to delete information. There were a million legitimate and logical reasons why he did not want us to see whatever had been erased, but I also remembered what Deepa had told me. I decided to keep this in mind and talk to her about that as soon as I could. I wanted to hear her advice before I asked Stahl. I trusted Stahl but I didn’t want to come to him with just a hunch that could be completely wrong.

  Aloud, I said, “He is the admiral who gave us these orders. I am sure he had a reason for doing it. Wrong info or something we are not supposed to know. Well, the Red Dragon is here and so are we. Let us fill in the blanks ourselves.”

  Circuit came on the bridge, joined Ship and Shea, and after a few moments said, “The Red Dragon’s hull is made of compacted Ultronit, the same as our battleship’s armor. It is standard now, but back then it was state of the art. The main hull is 245 meters long and shows distinctive Saran battle cruiser lines. I think they recycled the frame of one from the looks of it. The remaining ISAH pods are of recent design, only about three or four years old. Type IX. With the Karthanian replacements, I doubt he can accelerate over 350 klicks.”

  “The main battery on top looks like it held a Translocator at one point but it from the looks of it, replaced with a double set of powerful Dai Than sputter cannons.”

  He turned to face me and explained, “It is believed the Dai attempt to create Translocator cannons. They do fire fusion bombs but only near light and not TransDim like the real thing and even their mothers don’t have anything bigger than Mega Loads.”

  Har-Hi sighed at that. “We are good engineers, but we have not figured out how to maintain containment in an antimatter charge while the casing is accelerated. The Union translocator cannons do not have this problem, as they transmit an explosion via another dimension.”

  Circuit turned to Har-Hi. “I didn’t mean to put down Dai technology.”

  Har-Hi responded, “I know the feeling, I catch myself doing it because I am working day in and day out with Union tech.”

  Mao said, “Technically, translocator cannons are not Union tech either, but Seenian.”

  Shea disagreed by saying, “Our Translocator technology is based on Seenian technology but in the last 1,500 years, we have greatly improved on it. Translocator gatlings, sniper cannons, and the reliability is at 99.99 percent.”

  I let them banter a little but then said, “Can we go back to the Red Dragon out there?”

  They all returned to their readouts and scanners and then Shea said, “He has an array of other weapons; Shiss, Karthanian, and Kermac tech, including four Loki torpedo st
arters.” She paused again and then said, “I am not completely sure but it appears the Red Dragon has a Seenian technology weapon as a main spine-core weapon, unknown design, but the materials conform to Seenian tech. It also conforms to the same sleeping energy readings I made from the ship Cateria attacked us with.”

  I called Cateria to the bridge. She looked very tired as she appeared six minutes later. “Sorry for the delay, captain, I was sleeping. That Nul patient of ours was more than a challenge.”

  I made an apologizing gesture. “I am sorry for disturbing you, but would you go over the scanner data from Shea and see if you can confirm that?”

  She went over to Shea’s console and worked with her. Finally, she turned and said, “That is indeed a zero point cannon of a much bigger size than the one I had in my courier. He also has a Seenian shield generator.”

  I still looked at the red ship and could clearly see the repairs on the aft, where the red color looked different and the material did not have the same hexagonal pattern of Ultronit.

  I said, “That explains why he could destroy the Glorystar so easily and shrug off Loki torpedoes without being completely destroyed.”

  Cateria covered her mouth and yawned. “Initial scanner data shows he has neither Seenian energy providers nor the advance sensors needed to use this weapon. That means he cannot operate his shields or the ZPC at full capacity. If I interpret his power level readout correctly, they can fire that ZPC once every 20 minutes at perhaps 10 percent of its capacity at most and the same holds true for the shields.”

  I gave my CMO a thankful look. “Go back to bed, Cateria, I hope I can let you sleep but I might have to call you again, since he seems to have access to Seenian tech.”

  She gave me a smile, which was rare for her. “It is all good, captain. I needed to get up anyway and check on the Nul. He should come around in an hour or so. Not that I ever have been a real weapon or tech expert.”

  I said, “I hope you find some rest later then. You have already proven beyond any doubts that you are the best CMO a ship could have, and I think even Seenians can get sick if they don’t sleep enough.”